Thursday, April 18, 2013

First Real Gardening Set (CPX-529L)

Gardening with Kids﻿

﻿﻿﻿﻿Now that April Showers have brought forth the beginning of May flowers, what better time than now to get your kids outdoors! Here are some great ways to get your kids involved with this wonderful outdoor activity.

• Safety - Gardening with your children is a great way to introduce them to an outdoor education activity that will peak their curiosity. If your child encounters a small creature they are unfamiliar with, this is a wonderful opportunity to answer his/her excitement with a talk about creatures and the environment.

• Learning - Another great aspect of gardening is that it enables your child to learn vital life-long skills including the ability to prepare a garden, making decisions on what to grow, learning how to plant and tend the crops, observing and harvesting, and most importantly, being able to reap the rewards of working on a long-term task. Giving your child exposure to gardening may not only connect them with nature, but also allows them to do something real, with tangible results!

• Ownership - Giving your child the chance to care for plants and the environment is also beneficial to their moral development. No matter how your child contributes to the garden, they have the ability to take pride in their work and feel like they belong to something meaningful! This simple activity paves the way for your child to understand the importance of other tasks like chores and schoolwork.

• Food - An integral part of gardening is giving your child the ability to learn about food they can grow. Observing a garden provides your child with lessons on topics as diverse as life cycles, the concept of change, or practice in measurement. Gardening can also encourage your child to learn the importance of harvesting and producing their very own vegetables! In the long-run, this promotes healthy eating as your child learns more about how fun it is to grow!